First Robin of Spring!

I just peeked out in the back yard and spotted the first robin of spring parked in the hanging bird bath. Not bathing. Not drinking. Not wading. Just parked.

And those pretty purple flowers of the penstemons in my Natives bed? Getting purpler by the day! The sprouts are continuing to sprout and are adding more and more true leaves.

[Hey! You said that before -- true leaves. Huh? As opposed to false leaves?!?!]

OK. Terminology. Beware the technical botany lesson! When a seed sprouts, the first "leaves" aren't actually called leaves. They're cotyledons. The wildflowers have two and are, therefore dicotyledons. Grasses have but one and are called -- you guessed it -- monocotyledons.  So, if you're trying to look up a plant in a botany book of some sort, now you know a major difference between monocots and dicots.

We now return you to your regular reading.  :-)